# Experimental optical simulator of reconfigurable and complex quantum environment

## TL;DR

This paper presents an optical simulator capable of mimicking complex, reconfigurable quantum environments, enabling experimental exploration of open quantum system dynamics and their applications in quantum information and thermodynamics.

## Contribution

The authors develop and experimentally demonstrate an optical platform that simulates arbitrary, reconfigurable quantum environments using continuous variables, advancing the study of open quantum systems.

## Key findings

- Successfully simulated spectral density and non-Markovianity effects
- Reconfigurable environment allows testing various open quantum system scenarios
- Platform enables experimental investigation of quantum information processes

## Abstract

No quantum system can be considered totally isolated from its environment. In most cases the interaction between the system of interest and the external degrees of freedom deeply changes its dynamics, as described by open quantum system theory. Nevertheless, engineered environment can be turned into beneficial effects for some quantum information tasks. Here we demonstrate an optical simulator of a quantum system coupled to an arbitrary and reconfigurable environment built as a complex network of quantum interacting systems. We experimentally retrieve typical features of open quantum system dynamics like the spectral density and quantum non-Markovianity, by exploiting squeezing and entanglement correlation of a continuous variables optical platform. This opens the way to the experimental tests of open quantum systems in reconfigurable environments that are relevant in, among others, quantum information, quantum thermodynamics, quantum transport and quantum synchronization.